And this is how I amuse myself. Don’t get old, kids.

Tonight Rob and I went across to the largest screen in the UK to see FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA (2024) and it did not disappoint.

I used to live in the cinema, but these days I cherry pick very carefully what I’m going to see. Back in the day I’d happily take a gamble. I went to see THE MATRIX (1999) not knowing a damn thing about it for example, but those days are long gone. You can’t even watch a fucking trailer without having the ‘best part’ of the next 120 seconds rammed down your throat in case you click away. Don’t get started on the actual movies…

I was confident that we were in safe hands with George Miller. At this stage I’d trust him to strap me to an exploding car and toss it off a cliff. The MAD MAX movies are my STAR WARS and represent pure cinema that you can draw a line from all the way back to THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY in 1903. If you don’t think Mel Gibson and the guy who sang the song at Scott and Charlene’s wedding in Neighbours can be ART then I don’t know why we’re talking to each other.

I’m still processing the movie. All I can say right now is that there’s a certain scene where someone in the audience shouted, “Fuck, yeah!” with his fist in the air and shit if it wasn’t me. It also features the best line in cinematic history and I can’t wait to see it again. And again. And again.

Much more to come on this one.

This followed another of those conversations with Steve and Dave. It’s amazing any of us get any work done with the rabbit holes we traverse.

Only a few pages in and this is already kicking my arse. Very 70s.

If you rely on trigger warnings this is not the read for you. If they edited that stuff out it’d be like 6 pages long.

I’ve got an itch to start writing about movies again. Not sure I need another newsletter. Here? Not sure anyone is reading it. Haven’t mentioned it. I know a few people swing by… got a lot on at the moment so this may be just my stupid brain’s way of procrastinating. When I surface again I’ll give it some serious thought.

It’s THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING (1964) by the way.

Only five of them ever worked. We have four of those.“

Finally a chance to check out the over-the-head Ettinaur 226XL cameras in 4K. ❤️ Albert Brooks.

You can now enjoy my bullshit over on Threads. This time you get to blame George.

I don’t begrudge you another completely unnecessary LOTR movie but I do wish we could get this Peter Jackson back for one more movie.

Seeing the premiere of BRAINDEAD at Frightfest back in ‘92 was such a fantastic cinema experience. So much cheering. Same thing happened when I saw THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001) in a packed Times Square cinema (had so many good movie adventures in NYC), but this was way more intimate. I’d found my tribe and they were fucking loud.

Just when I thought Shogun was the best TV show I saw this year Paatal Lok falls in my lap.

If, like me, you love a sad-sack detective way out of his depth then check out the wonderful Jaideep Ahlawat as the hangdog Hathiram Chaudhary.

I hope they go on to make another seven seasons.